


The Summer of Like

by lil_mistake_boi



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Canon? We don't know her., Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Slow Burn, Unrequited Crush, canon is canceled, fuck the duffel bags, i'm here for their fucking wigs, my canon now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 03:51:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20147167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_mistake_boi/pseuds/lil_mistake_boi
Summary: Harringrove social media AU where Steve has been working at Scoops Ahoy since the beginning of summer. One day, a new kid brings her big brother to the ice cream shop. Steve’s bi. Gay panic ensues.Based onthissocial media au.





	The Summer of Like

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to say thank you to my good friend, [Mewenn](https://mew-mew-i-m-a-kew.tumblr.com/) for not only allowing me to write this big gay mess, but also for putting up with me throughout my writing process. I am an absolute heathen. Your patience is greatly appreciated.
> 
> based on parts [1](https://mew-mew-i-m-a-kew.tumblr.com/post/186170277825/part-1-part-2-masterpost) and [2](https://mew-mew-i-m-a-kew.tumblr.com/post/186186360985/part-2-steve-and-the-touching-story-of-gay)

Hot days in July were usually hectic at Scoops Ahoy. Hot Friday afternoons were usually absolute chaos. It was odd that, on this sweltering Friday afternoon in July, business was nonexistent.

Since eight am, when Robin and Steve opened up shop, there had been a total of three customers. The first was an unsupervised little girl in crooked pigtails that paid for her single scoop of vanilla ice cream entirely in pennies. The second and third customers were a deeply exhausted mother and bratty preteen. She ordered a strawberry sundae with chocolate ice cream. Her son, who didn’t even bother to look at Steve as he placed his order, got a chocolate and banana shake. After they left, no one bothered to glance in the direction of the ice cream shop as they passed by its rented space within the mall.

The clock on the register said that it was a little before noon when Steve plopped himself down on the stool behind the counter. It was his turn to watch over the store while Robin played on her phone in the back room, but the geography didn’t matter much. She could have played on her phone at the counter. That was what Steve was doing, anyway. There was no one there. What did it matter?

He fended off the boredom with Twitter.

A month earlier, a small, redheaded child had joined the ranks of - as Robin liked to call it - “Steve’s Child-Friends”. Steve didn’t really know much about her, as she had never spoken to him, but he accepted her presence in his car when it was his turn to take the kids to the arcade, and he’d seen her playing Dungeons and Dragons with the group a few times when he’d come to pick up Dustin and take him home. He assumed that he would eventually pick up her name in conversation if she never got around to introducing herself. However, because of Twitter, Steve no longer had to wonder about her identity. Lucas had tweeted about her, referring to her as Maxine, and she’d replied to the tweet, which allowed Steve to tap on her image and find her account. Evidently, she preferred “Max” over “Maxine” and was willing to fight anyone who got it wrong. That was useful information.

Since Steve still had some free time on that sluggish Friday afternoon in July, he took a moment to bug Dustin about changing his handle. A month earlier and slightly pre-Max, Steve had decided to change his Twitter handle to “@KingHarrington”. Unfortunately, spelling was never Steve’s best subject, and he accidentally made it “@KingHarrigton”. Dustin, the little shit, noticed this fact and changed his own Twitter handle to the proper spelling just to mess with big, bad Babysitter Harrington. He was admirably stubborn about it, too, so the effort to change his mind was fruitless. The stupid kid was going to take “@KingHarrington” to his grave. Steve simultaneously resented and respected him for it.

The day was mostly uneventful and draining, but Steve could look forward to a party at Carol’s house with Nancy and Jonathan that night. That would be fun, almost. It would at least be more fun than the average Jonathan-Nancy outing with Steve hardcore third-wheeling in the background. Robin said she would go with them, so Steve could just hang out with her if things got too uncomfortable. It would be okay. Really. Steve didn’t even like Nancy romantically anymore, much less _love _her. Not even sort of.

If he told himself that enough, he would maybe start to believe it.

Bored, Steve slipped his phone into the waistband of his uniform sailor shorts and turned up volume on the Bluetooth speaker. Robin’s Spotify playlist was humming over the speakers, mostly consisting of songs by that one Disney lesbian and the guy who sang “Take Me To Church” about a billion years ago. Steve had only known Disney Lesbian from that movie about lemonade that aired when he was ten, and wasn’t aware of her lesbian music platform before he met Robin. He knew all of jack shit about the “Take Me To Church” guy. He hadn’t even known that the guy __had__ other songs.

The song playing over the speakers was by the “Take Me To Church” guy, though, and it actually kind of slapped. It was definitely a little bit of a bop.

“_Would things be easier if there was a right way / Honey, there is no right way_,” the guy - Hozier, Google said after a quick search search for “the take me to church guy” - sang.

Steve was vibing with it so much that he started mumbling along, sort of making the right sounds. If he didn’t enunciate fully, it almost sort of sounded like he was singing the right thing.

“_And so I fall in love just a little, oh a little bit every day with someone new / I fall in love just a little, oh a little bit every day with someone new…_”

He was getting really into it, actually - head nodding to the rhythm, body wiggling in his seat in lieu of actually standing to dance around, singing into his ice cream scoop/microphone. Of course, that was until Steve got startled by the sight of movement out of the corner of his eye and dropped his scoop.

“What are you breaking __now__, Dingus?” Robin yelled from the back room.

Steve banged on the divider instead of yelling back. He’d already embarrassed himself enough in front of the potential customer.

It was funny, like a little joke from the universe, that the potential customer was none other than Max. She strolled into Scoops Ahoy looking unimpressed, which Steve took to mean that she’d seen his lip syncing and found it poorly executed.

“Hey, there,” Steve said, doing his best to smile and laugh off his embarrassment as he very deliberately disinfected his scoop so that she could see him being sanitary. Some customers were very particular about that. “I didn’t see you come in. What can I get you?”

“Mint chocolate chip, two scoops,” she replied, although her tone made it sound like she was really saying, “I’m not entirely sure that you’re competent enough to figure that out.” Steve didn’t blame her too much for that, but still. Ouch.

Steve was very artfully _and _competently scooping Max’s ice cream into a waffle cone when someone yelled, “Oy, Shitbag!” and he jerked his head up in response.

It was all Steve could do not to drop the cone on the floor. The boy - man, snack, fucking _meal _\- standing at the entrance of the shop had his tanned, muscular arms crossed over his perfectly defined chest, his lovely face contorted into something akin to a sneer. Whatever Steve had done to upset him, he was immediately and truly, deeply sorry.

“I swear to God, Maxine. It’s like every time I look away for two fucking seconds, you disappear. Do you _want _to be a kidnapping statistic?” he snapped.

Okay. He wasn’t mad at Steve. That was good. Why was he yelling at Max? And, also, why was Steve’s hand wet? He tore his eyes away just long enough to realize that he’d crushed Max’s ice cream cone in his hand.

He very discreetly threw the ruined cone in the trashcan, wiped his hand on a towel, and started over.

“I wanted ice cream. It’s not my fault you were too busy with your head up your ass to notice me walking away,” Max grumbled back.

The very attractive person walked up to the counter, his sun-kissed curls bouncing around his shoulders as he moved. It was all Steve could do not to wreck the cone he’d just completed, so he handed it over to Max before he could fuck it up again.

“Hey,” Mystery Meal said, blinding smile revealing perfectly white teeth. “How much for the shithead’s ice cream?”

It took Steve a few extra seconds to remember how to speak, but when he could remember how vocalization worked again, he mumbled out, “Uh, $3.50.”

Max was still trying to find her wallet - a process severely hindered by how hard she was rolling her eyes - when The Most Beautiful Person to Ever Exist placed the money on the counter.

“I can pay for myself,” she protested, but Absolute Unit of Snackiness just shrugged and pushed the money towards Steve.

“You can leave the tip.”

“Whatever,” Max huffed. She put a dollar in the jar anyway.

Steve didn’t have time to wonder about how that interaction fit into their clearly turbulent relationship dynamic. The man of Steve’s dreams was smiling at him in full, sparkling, dizzying force as he said, “Thanks. I’m sorry about Maxine. She suffers from Chronic Asshole Syndrome.”

Steve was vaguely aware of Max kicking Steve’s Literal Soulmate in the shins just to prove his point. His Royal Sexiness didn’t even acknowledge her.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Steve insisted helplessly. “No, she’s fine. It’s all good.”

Max rolled her eyes again, determined to get them stuck staring into the back of her skull, while Hottie McMeltingtheicecream winked at him. “I’ll see you around,” he said. Very suddenly and with an almost violent passion, Steve hoped that was a promise.

As they left, he very casually and subtly watched them leave, shoving each other and bickering back and forth. Whoever that man was, his ass was magnificent.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment!


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